The document summarizes a presentation on linking Civil War data using Linked Open Data techniques. It discusses: 1. The potential for mashups and remixing of cultural heritage data in a linked data context. 2. The growth of the Linked Open Data cloud and importance of linking data from libraries, archives, and museums. 3. The Civil War Data 150 project which aims to link datasets about the American Civil War using a common vocabulary to enable new analyses and visualizations of the data.

1. DLF Fall Forum
October 31, 2011
Civil War Data150: Notes Toward a Linked
Data Case Study
Scott Nesbit Jon Voss
Associate Director, Digital Scholarship Lab Historypin Strategic Partnerships Director
University of Richmond We Are What We Do
@csnesbit @jonvoss

2. 1. Cultural Heritage in a Mashup Age

4. The DJ in the Library?

5. History & Mashup Culture
+
2010 National Archives Photo Contest
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37377809@N00/5304492185/in/pool-1633053@N21/

6. History & Mashup Culture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37377809

7. 2. Linked Open Data
in
Libraries, Archives & Museums

8. 2009
Linked
Open
Data
photos by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE, TED

9. Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/

11. The LOD cloud as a whole grew
by 300% in 2010
http://swib.org/swib11/

12. The LOD cloud as a whole grew
by 300% in 2010
whereas
the amount of data
relevant for libraries
grew by nearly
1000%
http://swib.org/swib11/

13. Linked Open Data
in
Libraries, Archive & Museums
Culture
Technology
LODLAM Law

14. Join the LODLAM movement
• #lodlam
• http://lodlam.net proceedings online and on
the road for the next year at various annual
meetings and conferences
• http://groups.google.com/group/lod-lam
• Contribute!

15. 3. A 2 minute or less primer:
Tables to Graphs &
Triples

16. Going from Tables to Graphs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasjwoods-com/2264301251

17. Going from Tables to Graphs
• nodes and links in a graph

18. Going from Tables to Graphs
• As computing power increases, the ability to build
more and more complex graphs becomes a reality.
• Human vs. Machine readable
msulibraries lookbackmaps
msulibraries internetarchive
msulibraries librarycongress
lookbackmaps internetarchive
internetarchive librarycongress

19. Introducing Triples
Nodes & Links
jonvoss

20. Introducing Triples
Nodes & Links
follows
jonvoss

21. Introducing Triples
Nodes & Links
follows
jonvoss csnesbit

22. Introducing Triples
Nodes & Links
follows
jonvoss SILibraries
csnesbit
• Quite simply: Subject, Predicate, Object

23. Introducing Triples
Nodes & Links
follows
jonvoss SILibraries
csnesbit
• Quite simply: Subject, Predicate, Object
• gives us the ability to describe entities in a way that is
machine readable

24. Triples for machines
• triples can be serialized in many different ways,
including Resource Description
Framework, RDF/XML, RDFa, N3, Turtle, etc,
but they all describe things in the
<subject><predicate><object> format.
• of course, we need to be consistent and
predictable for machines to understand us.

25. What do we know about the person: Ed
Summers (aside from the fact that he
rocks)?
Bio: Hacker for libraries, digital archaeologist, pragmatist.
bio
knows
depiction of
knows
http://inkdroid.org/ehs.rdf

26. http://inkdroid.org/ehs.rdf

27. 4. Civil War Data 150

28. http://civilwardata150.net

29. • Civil War vocabulary, or a way to link and traverse
across datasets
• Regiments, Battles, Places

30. Primary Partners

31. Three Phase Project

32. Phase 1: Metadata collection
Licensing and publishing datasets

33. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/item/2003653763/

34. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003653763/marc/

35. Legal Tools
• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
• http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/
Open Data Published Data
CC BY CC BY-NC-ND
CC0
CC BY-NC
Public Domain Mark
CC BY-ND
Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)
CC BY-SA
Attribution License (ODC-By)
Open Database License (ODC-ODbL) CC BY-NC-SA

36. Phase 2: Vocabulary Alignment
Scripting or Human Judgement
Identifiying Battles, Regiments, Locations

38. Phase 3: Publishing/Visualizations

39. <rdf:RDF>
<frbr:Work rdf:about="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/00651205/">
<dcterms:title>
7th N.Y. State Militia, Camp Cameron, D.C., 1861
</dcterms:title>
<dcterms:subject rdf:resource=”http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus
%3Atext%3A2001.05.0146%3Achapter%3D30%3Aregiment%3DNY7StateMilitia”/>
<dcterms:subject rdf:resource=”http://www.freebase.com/edit/topic/en/
7th_new_york_militia”/>
<dcterms:subject rdf:resource=”http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n97059093”/>
<xhtml:license rdf:resource="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/"/>
<cc:attributionName>Source: Library of Congress</cc:attributionName>
</frbr:Work>
</rdf:RDF>

43. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation

44. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation

45. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows

46. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
Official
Records

47. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
Official Dyer’s
Records Compendium

48. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
Official Dyer’s Perseus
Records Compendium Project

49. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows

50. Why Humanists Should Like LOD

51. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
Army
New
Regiment + X =
Arguments
Locations

52. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
where: X = Emancipation

53. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows
“Early on Saturday morning last while off Point Lookout three negroes came to the
ship in a canoe from the Virginia shore. They say they are free, but have no free
papers, and assign as a reason for running away that they were required to fight. I
have also on board two slaves taken from the Virginia shore by the late
Commander J. Ward; they say they belong to Mrs. Stewart, a widow, residing near
Mathias Point. I respectfully request instructions in relation to all these people.”
-Capt. S. C. Rowan, aboard the U.S.S. Pawnee,
to Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy,
July 23, 1861

54. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
Visualizing Emancipation
Data Flows

55. Why Humanists Should Like LOD

56. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = U.S. Colored Troops

57. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Environment

58. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
Soldier
where: X =
Health

59. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
Survival
where: X =
Rates

60. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Destruction

61. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Bushwhacking

62. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Railroads

63. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Rivers

64. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
Data Flows
where: X = Occupations

65. Why Humanists Should Like LOD
CWD150
http://dsl.richmond.edu

66. Learn More at DLF:
Linked Data: Hands on How-to
2-5pm Nov. 1
with
Kris Carpenter Negulescu
Richard Rogers
Matt Zumwalt
Susan Chun

67. DLF Fall Forum
October 31, 2011
Civil War Data150: Notes Toward a Linked
Data Case Study
http://civilwardata150.net
Scott Nesbit Jon Voss
Associate Director, Digital Scholarship Lab Historypin Strategic Partnerships Director
University of Richmond We Are What We Do
@csnesbit @jonvoss